Browned, Brittle Leaves

The browned, brittle leaves framing the stop sign in this picture make me ponder the brevity of life. As the leaves change colors and quickly fall to the ground this time of year, it's good to be reminded not to trust what is temporal, but to look to Him Who Changes Not.

Easy-Peasy Potato Soup

The lovely Indian Summer weather we've been enjoying lately has finally blown away. It's windy and chilly in Midland now, definitely feeling like fall.

With cooler temperatures, hot soup was in order in our house today.  We had a bunch of potatoes in the fridge, so I thought I should make some potato soup. I chopped them up and set them to boil. But I didn't feel like searching for a recipe. And I certainly didn't feel like going grocery shopping for ingredients. Time to improvise! In our pantry I found a can of beef and vegetable soup, and I stirred it into the pot of boiled potatoes. Then I poured in some milk and shook in some blended seasonings. Voila! Easy-peasy potato soup. We ate it as a family for dinner tonight, topped with bacon crumbles and croutons. We all agreed it was as delicious to eat as it was easy to prepare. =)

Consider God's Wonders

It seems as a culture we're always rushing, rushing.  We know we're supposed to halt at stop signs for safety's sake--and sometimes we don't even fully do that. “Life is so urgent it necessitates a slow and steady reverence,” writes bestselling author Ann Voskamp. What about pausing for beauty's sake--to take in the awe of God's creation and to worship Him for His marvelous works that are all around us? The splendor of the scarlet-, gold-, and emerald-clothed maple behind this stop sign took my breath away. “Stop and consider God's wonders,” His word beckons.

He Has Given Us Light

Creative Classroom: Recycled Poker Chips

Place value disks,
available from Schoolsuppliesatoz.com

 

My case of Math Chips,
with place value card

I recently came across these foam, color-coded-by-place-value disks. How great these would be to use with my third graders, who are learning about place value, renaming, and regrouping.

This afternoon I happened to drop by the thrift store. What should I find on the board game shelf but two cases of plastic Poker chips for 69 cents each! For a fraction of the cost of commercially-produced manipulatives, I was able to easily make my own. It only took a few minutes to write the numbers on the chips, with a Sharpie marker. I also made an accompanying place value card, for stacking the chips. So far my collection of Poker *ahem, Math* chips only has three place values, but for now that is sufficient for the 3-digit regrouping problems that my third graders are currently learning. I'm excited to see how this new manipulative will help my students to better grasp the math concepts.

Send Out Your Light

Fast Food Math

Check out these engaging fast-food themed math manipulatives! Give your students a good taste for math concepts such as fractions, place value, and decimals, with the Fraction Burger, Base Ten Fries, and Decimal Dog. Available from Delta Education.